Substance Notes

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Note Taking Guide — Substance (Meaning/Theme/So What?)


Substance is the meaning or the theme of a work. Substance is the meaning of the work that you are “so whatting.” Substance is made more powerful by connecting to the universal or the archetypal. You probably already know most of these terms. If you are missing one, it is probably discussed in more depth in How To Read Literature Like a Professor. In your small group, spend some time coming up with an example for each term. Your example must be from a book you’ve read or a movie you’ve seen. We will go over any terms for which you cannot find an example


Universal/Archetypal Characters
  • Epic Hero: Odysseus
  • Tragic Hero: Achilles
  • Byronic Hero: Han Solo
  • AntiHero: Deadpool
  • Outcast: Shrek
  • Scapegoat: Dallas
  • Stranger in the Village: Boo Radley


Universal/Archetypal Women
  • Earth mother: Tala
  • temptress: Helen
  • soul-mate: Juliet
  • platonic ideal: Hermione
  • maiden: Rapunzel
  • mother: Fiona
  • crone: Gothel


Universal/Archetypal Images
  • Colors: Scarlet Ibis
  • Numbers: The Circle
  • Water: The Bible
  • Yin and Yang (Juxtaposition): The Killing Joke
  • Nature and Garden: The Bible
  • Tree: Cinderella


Universal/Archetypal Plots
  • Coming-of-Age (Bildungsroman): Selena
  • Mistaken Identity/Farce: Ratatouille
  • Renewal of Life: Ping Pong the Animation
  • Quest/Journey: The Hobbit
  • Spiritual epiphany: Life of Pi
  • Stranger in the Village: Footloose
  • Outcast: Lord of the Flies


Novel Types You Should Know
  • Bildungsroman: Their Eyes Were Watching God
  • Dystopian: The Circle
  • Utopian: DNE
  • Epistolary: Paul's Epistle to the Romans
  • Gothic: Dracula
  • Historical: Julius Caesar
  • Novella: Of Mice and Men
  • Novel of manners: Pride and Prejudice
  • Social novel: Oliver Twist


Poem Types You Should Know
  • ode: honoring something; Victory Ode
  • elegy: remembering someone who died; O Captain! My Captain!
  • lyric: short, rhyming piece; The Laboratory
  • sonnet: square, rhymes, 14 lines; Italian Sonnet


Gender, Race, and Class as Contemporary “Outcast” or “Identity” Themes
  • Gender: The Breadwinner
  • Race: To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Class: Slumdog Millionaire


Other Important Theme Categories:
  • Identity: Invisible Man
  • Memory: The Giver
  • Good and Evil: Tucker and Dale vs Evil
  • Love: Romeo and Juliet
  • Religion: Life of Pi
  • Family: Good Luck Charlie
  • Personal Responsibility: Odyssey
  • Reality: Interstellar
  • Sanity: The Killing Joke
  • Carpe Diem: The Fault in Our Stars
  • Pastoral: Walden



Exploring Literary Substance Through Time Periods:
  • Renaissance: 1500-1600s, Shakespeare, God, Nature of Art; Julius Caesar
  • Enlightenment: 1600s-1700s, Society, Mannerism, Rules; Never read any, because it isn't good.
  • Romanticism: 1800s, Longfellow, Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Blake; The Scarlet Letter
  • Victorian Era: Dickens, cheap books with higher literacy rates; Tale of Two Cities
  • Gothicism: Individual sees their own corruption, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King; It, Frankenstein
  • Realism: Breaks over Industrial Revolution, Accurate depiction of day-to-day life; Huckleberry Fin (Regional Realism; differences in culture)
  • Modern Realism: We only tell tales of rich people, so this is changed; The Fault in Our Stars
  • Modernism: 20th Century, Response to WWI, T.S. Eliot; Cats, The Great Gatsby
  • Magical Realism: Central American movement for everyday events holding surreal meaning; The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
  • Postmodernism: Deliberately fracture story and make audience understand themselves, Vonnegut; Slaughterhouse Five
  • Existentialism: Life is what you make it out to be; All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Absurdism: No meaning, but you keep trying to create meaning; Waiting for Godot